VOA news for Tuesday, November 28th, 2017
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From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Jonathan Jones reporting.
Police in Iraq say a suicide bombing at a popular market on the outskirts of the capital, Baghdad, has killed at least 11 people. Officials say at least 26 others were wounded in the attack, which took place in the Nahrawan shopping area southeast of Baghdad.
A security official said two suicide bombers opened fire on civilians in the market late Monday, then blew themselves up.
The Islamic State [group] terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on its Amaq channel.
Myanmar's military chief said he told Pope Francis that there is "no religious discrimination" in his country, where violence against Rohingya Muslims has been termed "ethnic cleansing" by the United States.
[General] Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said in a Facebook post "Myanmar has no religious discrimination at all. Likewise our military too... (it) performs for the peace and stability of the country.”
Pope Francis met with Myanmar's military chief Monday as he began his trip to the southeast Asian country to discuss violence in Rakhine state which has caused over 620,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee into neighboring Bangladesh.
Thousands of Myanmar's nearly 700,000 Catholics traveled to greet the Pope as he landed in Yangon Monday, and more than 150,000 have registered to attend a Mass he will say on Wednesday.
[It's the first] He is the first pope to visit Myanmar. He received the military chief at the archbishop's [restaurant, rest, rester] residence, that is, in Yangon.
This is VOA news.
Zimbabwean security forces say order has been restored and they will be returning to the streets. But that announcement was met with fear from many Zimbabweans, who remain wary of men in uniform, following years of abuses.
VOA's Anita Powell reports from Harare.
These are words that should calm and reassure. "The situation in our country is returned to normalcy." That is police spokeswoman Charity Charamba announcing police would return to their beats and conduct joint patrols with soldiers in central Harare less than a week after soldiers took over security duties during the political upheaval that forced President Robert Mugabe to resign.
But in Zimbabwe, where human rights groups have accused the police of shocking brutality, arbitrary arrests and extortion, these words bring little comfort.
Police are so unpopular that the stadium of more than 60,000 people booed loudly when the nation's police commissioner last week pledged loyalty to new President Emmerson Mnangagwa during his inauguration.
Anita Powell, VOA news, Harare.
Turkish officials say they are watching to see whether the United States will honor a promise, which they claim was made by President Trump to Turkey's president last week, to cut off the supply of arms to Kurdish militias that played a key role in defeating Islamic State militants in Syria.
The Turkish foreign minister announced the promise at a press conference shortly after the two presidents spoke by telephone on Friday.
He said, "Mr. Trump clearly stated that he had given clear instructions, and that the YPG won't be given arms and that this nonsense should have ended a long time ago.”
However, a White House statement issued after the call with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was more circumspect. It said Trump "also informed President Erdoğan of pending adjustments to the military support provided to our partners on the ground in Syria, now that the battle of Raqqa is complete and we are progressing into a stabilization phase to ensure that ISIS cannot return.”
In the United States, it's still Cyber Monday, a day when holiday shoppers could set a new spending record for online purchases from work, home or anywhere with their cell phones.
With rising wages in the U.S., low unemployment and strong consumer confidence, research firm Adobe Analytics predicts shoppers could spend $6.6 billion on Monday. That is a more than 16 percent increase over last year's record-setting total.
There is more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com and on the VOA news mobile app. I'm Jonathan Jones reporting from the world headquarters of the Voice of America in Washington.
That's the latest world news from VOA.
